Railway-signal or whistle-blowing attachment for locomotives



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. PILAUD. RAILWAY SIGNAL 0R WHISTLE BLOWING ATTACHMENT FOR LOCOMOTIVES.

No. 579,281. Patented Mar. 23, 1897.

wires 'rarns arnwr @rrren JOSEPH PILAUD, or COVlNG-TON, LOUISIANA.

RAILWAY-SIGNAL 0R WHISTLE-BLOWING ATTACi-iMENT FOR LOCOMOTiVES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 579,281, dated March23, 1897.

Application filed September 24, 1896. Serial No. 606,909. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH PILA'UD, acitizen of the United States,residing at Govington, in the parish of St. Tammary and State ofLouisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inThistle-Blowing Attachments for Locomotives; and I do declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it apper tains tomake and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for automaticallyblowing a locomotive-whistle as a train approaches a crossing or otherpoint where an alarm should be sounded; and its novelty and advantageswill be fully understood from the following description and claims whentaken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, in which Figure 1 is adetail view, partly in section and partly in elevation, of a locomotiveequipped with my improved apparatus. Fig. 2 is a detail sectionalperspective view of the rock-shaft. Fig. 3 is a vertical transversesection taken in the plane indicated by the line 00 a: of Fig. 1, andFig. 4 is a horizontal section taken in the plane indicated by the liney y of Fig. 3.

In the said drawings similar letters designate corresponding parts inall of the several views, referring to which A indicates a post which isdesigned to be arranged at the side of a railway-track in proximity to acrossing or other point where an alarm should be sounded, and isprovided with a lateral arm a.

B indicates a locomotive which in general may be of the ordinaryconstruction, and 0 indicates the whistle, which may have the usuallever 19 and may otherwise be of the or dinary construction.

D indicates a weight which is connected by a cord 0, which passes over asheave d, with the whistle-lever l), and is designed, when released andallowed to drop, to open the whistle, so as to sound an alarm. Thisweight D in the preferred embodiment of my invention is pivotallyconnected at one end with two lugs 6, depending from the top of thelocomotive-cab, and it is provided at its opposite end with a hook f,which is preferably shaped as shown and formed of spring-steel or otherresilient metal. The said hook f of the weight D is designed to takebetween two apertu red lugs g, which are connected to the top of the caband engage the slidable bolt 7t, which extends loosely throughsaid lugs,as shown, and by reason of said hook being formed of resilient materialand shaped as shown it will be seen that when the bolt h is in theposition shown in Fig. t and the free end of the weight is raised thehook will give and spring into engagement with the bolt, as illustratedin Fig. 3.

E indicates a hollow rock-shaft which is j ournaled in suitable bearingsin the side walls of the cab, adjacent to the top thereof, and isarranged transverse of the cab, as shown. This hollow shaft E isnormally held in and returned to position shown in Fig. 1 by the coiledsprings t', which are connected to and interposed between an arm j onthe shaft and hangers 76, depending from the cabtop, as shown. Saidhollow shaft E is provided with longitudinal slots m, and it is designedto loosely receive the horizontal portions n of angular arms F, whichhorizontal portions n are provided with lugs 19, arranged in the slots mof the shaft, whereby it willbe seen that the said arms F are free to beadjusted outwardly and inwardly with respect to the shaft E, but canonly turn or move in a vertical direction with the shaft. The shaft E isfurther provided with an arm 7, which is loosely connected with one endof the bolt h, whereby it will be seen that the bolt h will be normallyheld in the position shown in Fig. 4 to support the free end of theweight D, and will be returned to such position by the springst' afterthe shaft E has been rocked to blow the whistle.

In practice the posts A are arranged at suitable distances in advance ofthe crossings or other points where it is desired to blow the tionindicated by arrow (see Fig. 1) and will draw the bolt 71, andconsequently release the weight D and permit it to fall and open thewhistle, so as to sound an alarm. As soon as the arm F passes a'post Athe springs i will return the rock-shaft and the parts connectedtherewith to the position shown in Fig. 1, so that the arm F will be inreadiness to engage the arm a of the next post A. The weight D, however,must be returned to its normal position by the engineer, and in order tofacilitate the raising of the same I prefer to provide the cord 8, whichis connected to the weight and passes over a pulley t at the top of thecab and has the pendent end for the grasp of the engineer. By drawingdownwardly on such end of the cord 8 the engineer is enabled to readilyraise the weight into engagement with the bolt h. I also prefer toconnect a cord at with the whistle-lever b, as shown, and carry the sameinto the cab, so as to enable the engineer to conveniently blow thewhistle when desired.

In order to apprise the engineer of the fact that the train isapproaching a crossing, I prefor to employ the gong "u, the springhammer w, adapted to strike the gong, and the arm 00 on the bolt 71, allarranged as better shown in Fig. at. In virtue of this construction itwill be seen that when the shaft E is rocked by the arm F the gong nwill be struck and an alarm will be sounded. The said gong o, the hammerw, and the arm 03 on the bolt h may be used in conjunction with theweight for blowing the whistle, or when desired the weight may bedispensed with an d the whistle may be blown by the engineer after he isapprised of the fact that the train is approaching a crossing by theringing of the gong o. On the other hand, the gong o, hammer w, and arm00 may be dispensed with and the weight employed to automatically blowthe whistle, in the manner first described.

It will be observed from the foregoing that in virtue of my improvementsthe whistle will be blown as the train approaches each crossing, and itwill also be seen that the apparatus is very simple and durable and embodies no complicated parts which are likely to get out of order aftershort use.

Having described my invention, what I claim -is-- 1. The combination ofa hollow rock-shaft arranged on a locomotive and having a longitudinalslot, an arm adjustable lengthwise in the rock-shaft and having a lugengaging the slot in said shaft, said arm being adapted to engage astationary obstruction in its path, a bolt connected with therock-shaft, and an alarm adapted to be actuated by the movement of thebolt, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination of a rock-shaft arranged on a locomotive and adaptedto engage a stationary obstruction, a weight, a bolt arranged inbearings and connected with the rock-shaft and adapted to normallysupport the weight, a steam-whistle having a lever, and a connectionbetween the weight and lever, substantially as and for the purpose setforth.

3. The combination of a hollow rock-shaft arranged on a locomotive andhaving a longitudinal slot, and also having an arm j, an arm adjustablelengthwise in the rock-shaft and having a lug arranged in the slotthereof, springs arranged on opposite sides of and engaging the arm j,of the rock-shaft, a weight pivoted at one end and having a resilienthook at its opposite end, a bolt connected with the rock-shaft andarranged in bearings and adapted to engage the hook of the weight andsupport said weight, a steam-whistle having a lever, and a connectionbetween said lever and the pivoted weight.

J OSEPII PILAUD. YVitnesses:

PAUL TOWNSEND, LoUIs E. MATHIUS.

